I have been "away" for a bit, mentally and physically. In the last few months I have been so burnt out and exhausted I haven't felt like doing much of anything. I have suffered from depression and anxiety for over 15 years and it has hit me pretty strong recently. I have also been fighting an infection of some sort. It was pneumonia in September which I thought went away and came back even stronger in October. I needed to make sure I wasn't sick because I was scheduled to have my gall bladder removed and already had to reschedule once and I had been waiting years for the surgery. I finally had it removed on the 12th and everything seemed to go pretty smoothly but a couple days later when I was just relaxing on the couch, I had the most intense pain I ever felt in my abdomen. It was so bad I was crying in pain and couldn't catch my breath. This scared me because I have asthma and I started hyperventilating. My husband called EMS and they took me to the hospital. I was told that maybe a clamp came off and bile was leaking into my system or a stone escaped during surgery. We spent the night and most of the next day in the ER waiting for an ultrasound to see what was going on. The ultrasound was excruciating because the technician had to press down hard on my fresh incisions. Good news is, there was nothing out of the ordinary. They surgeon told me that it was likely some bile that leaked into my system and it wouldn't happen again but unfortunately my white blood cell count was 190000. I spent the next 4 days in the hospital while they tried to get my infection down. Leave it to me an my luck to have complications in a surgery that is performed on millions of people (lol). I have been recovering at home and feeling useless as I am used to keeping busy. My mind has been very active but my body has been telling me to rest. I am learning that I'm not invincible and I need to slow down a bit. I had to miss out on Fibre & Finery and a few classes I was supposed to teach. I am very lucky to have such amazing friends like Marjorie who took over my knitting class while I was in the hospital. I am hoping to get back on my wheel soon and update my Etsy shop.

It's my dad's birthday next week and he is always so hard to buy for because he has everything he needs. I try to knit him something each year because he appreciates the work and time involved. This year I made him a pair of socks. The pattern is Jenny Socks my Cynthia Guggemos. I used 2 balls of Knit Picks Stroll in the colourway Agate Heather. I am really happy with how they turned out.

I like the simple, yet effective slip stitch pattern and the shadow boxes at the cuff. It's sometimes hard to find a nice "guy" pattern and I think this one is perfect.

This pattern also works well with the reinforced heel flap which is also made up of slipped stitches.

I wanted to wrap them nicely so I put some cardstock around them with my business card stamp and fibre content stamp and used some festive washi tape I had.

It feels great to accomplish something! I can't wait to give him his birthday present.

Joanne Seiff is one of the wonderful organizers of the Manitoba Fibre Festival as well as an amazing designer, author and spinner. She wrote the following article for the CBC on the importance of fibre arts, handmakers and local producers. It is such a well written piece that I wanted to share it here so you can read it as well. You may recognize the yarn in the photo they used as some of mine :) The funny thing is, Joanne lives in Winnipeg and the photo was taken by Madeline Kotzer (CBC) at the Etsy Made in Canada sale in 2014 in Saskatoon. What are the odds they would connect Joanne and I in the same article - it is a small world! Please click the picture to be taken to the article